Field of Ruin

Land

{T}: Add {C}.

{2}, {T}, Sacrifice this: Destroy target nonbasic land an opponent controls. Each player searches their library for a basic land card, puts it onto the battlefield, then shuffles their library.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Brawl	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Pre-release	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Standard	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (50)

kamarupa on speedy Ghalta

2 weeks ago

One thing about having a lot of mana dorks is that you tend to run out of spells pretty quickly. I think it might be worth it to drop 2xCommune with Dinosaurs and add in 2xHarmonize. Or drop Commune with Dinosaurs altogether in favor of 2xHarmonize and 2xForerunner of the Empire. You never need a dinosaur on T1, and barely one T2, so the 1MV cost of Commune isn't really helping, per se. I'll also throw out Time of Need as a possible tutor for a few of your threats at a lower cost, but you might want to reconsider your creatures to add in a 3rd Legendary to make such a spell 'worth it.'

You need some kind of interaction with your opponent, as wallisface already said. In order to make room for non-creature/non-land spells, you have to cut either creatures or lands. Given some of the high MVs of spells here, I think it's safe to say, you can't afford to cut any lands, so you'll need to cut some creatures. I suggest dropping 1x of each of your elves. 6 is still quite a lot and 3 of each makes their removal less effective for opponents. I'd also cut 2x each of Otepec Huntmaster and Raptor Hatchling. I realize you need dinos for Drover of the Mighty to get buff, and obv Ghalta's discount, but I think you'll be just fine with those numbers and it opens up 6 slots for some utility spells. 28 creatures is still quite a lot. Additionally, having non-creature / non-land spells makes it a lot easy to swap spells with your sideboard.

Beast Within is pretty useful as it hits pretty much everything, but of course, comes with a downside. And of course, I'm 100% with wallisface on Lightning Bolt and Primal Might.

Some sideboard spells I really like: Return to Nature - sometimes getting rid of artifacts, enchantments, and graveyards is crucial.

Elixir of Immortality - just say no to mill

Ratchet Bomb - just say no to tokens.

Lands: Scavenger Grounds could be useful in some matchups.

Castle Garenbrig seems relevant

Field of Ruin is nice against tron and more

Boseiju, Who Endures is really nice.

1xYavimaya, Cradle of Growth might allow for one less forest and one more mountain.

wallisface on crab rave

3 weeks ago

Pact of Negation feels very dubious when you’ll be very unlikely to ever have the mana to pay for it.

Memory Deluge feels super slow/clumsy here. Not sure i’m a fan of Archmage's Charm either, as you’ll often be wanting to cast some kind of massive mill spell once you reach 3 lands.

Most mill decks run a playset of Field of Ruin to both trigger their crabs and force Archive Trap being castable.

nbarry223 on Shifty Crabs!

1 month ago

Well, if you were going a third color, the obvious choice is {B}. Drown in the Loch is so powerful in a mill deck as a denial card, as it can counter a threat or be removal, and it scales, all for 2 mana. {B} also has a lot of gravehate options, many of which gain life, so they help against both aggro and graveyard oriented decks, which may help to free up some slots in the sideboard, by consolidating your hate a bit.

Jace, the Perfected Mind is also a pretty powerful potential tool if able to be enabled, main enabler is usually Archive Trap (would suggest Field of Ruin if you went that route). Tasha's Hideous Laughter is another option if just going for the mill since most modern decks are very low curves.

I'm also a little surprised you don't have much in the way of gravehate in your sideboard. What do you do against decks where your mill strategy enables them? Bojuka Bog and Grafdigger's Cage just seem suboptimal. If removing threats already in the graveyard, I'd consider something like Surgical Extraction or Ashiok, Dream Render. If doing something preventative, replacement effects are the way to go instead of narrow denial strategies like Grafdigger's Cage since a lot of strategies like Living End get around it. Dauthi Voidwalker or Rest in Peace are the two main cards that come to mind. Honestly though, I think your best option in your current colors is Relic of Progenitus, since it lets you slowly chip away at graveyard strategies or is a cantrip that can be used in response to their graveyard strategy.

wallisface on

1 month ago

jbump75 Field of Ruin us a must in almost all mill decks, as it ensures you can use Archive Trap if your opponent is being cagey, and also all-but-guarantees the free-win versus Tron (not that that matchup is hard, but still).

PhyrexianPraetor on Orzhov Scam

1 month ago

BotaNickill

Thanks for the upvote, comment and suggestions. Believe it or not, this deck originally started it’s life in modern as a mono-black aggro deck that used self-reanimating creatures and Foul-Tongue Shriek with Phyrexian Obliterator at the top of the mana curve. I did kind of ok with that deck, but as time went on I had a much harder time due to everyone else switching to more midrange and control style decks. That’s when I built this deck and haven’t looked back. I’m not going to lie, this deck used to be an attention getter in my area for being a good and solid deck. But with War of the Spark, Modern Horizons and Modern Horizons 2 a lot of other decks got upgrades and new decks came to be a thing. This deck sadly fell behind due to this, I did get some new upgrades… but almost every other deck that was played in my area became even better due to getting more additions.

I might switch out one Phyrexian Obliterator for a single copy of Sheoldred, the Apocalypse. Obliterator is ok, but being able to shock the opponent every-time they draw a card is a big attraction to me.

I have been considering Misery's Shadow for the reasons you pointed out. My only struggle is that it only deals with creatures that die. Don’t get me wrong though, it is still a very potent card.

I guess it would come down to a meta call between Dauthi Voidwalker and Misery's Shadow, both have their respective upsides and downsides.

I have been considering Invoke Despair for a few weeks now. In essence, it can functionally act like Gray Merchant of Asphodel with draining life. On one hand it deals six damage and draws me three cards, on the other hand it makes my opponent sacrifice three permanents for five mana. It’s for these two aspects as to why I might even cut one Phyrexian Arena for it.

Tenacious Underdog is a card I have been evaluating and am unsure of. At base it is a 3/2 for two, with the ability to gain haste and draws a card for four mana. It’s for this reason as to why I have looked at it a bit, but unlike Invoke Despair it doesn’t have the potential to change much of the game-state and requires four mana to consistently bring back.

With the way modern is, four and five mana has to either impact the board in a big way or sway the game in your favour. Paying four mana to potentially deal three damage and draw a card might not be worth it. All in all though, I have yet to actually get back into the modern scene where I live. So it is entirely possible that I am being overly critical and am wrong about this card.

I honestly didn’t know about Knight of Dusk's Shadow. I like how it can stop a food token deck from gaining lots of life and all for two mana. I might test it out.

Agadeem's Awakening  ^Flip is something that I tried before. In my build it sadly doesn’t work. But in a deck that has four Leyline of the Void, more creatures and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx it can be really devastating. Perhaps that style of devotion deck can run Tenacious Underdog for continuous value.

Bojuka Bog, Takenuma, Abandoned Mire, and Field of Ruin are all lands that I have played in the past or have been considering for a while. I originally ran Bojuka Bog as my choice of graveyard hate. I liked how it couldn’t be countered or discarded. Takenuma, Abandoned Mire is yet another card I have had my eye on. There are a lot of legendary creatures that I could fit into this deck to make it cheaper. Field of Ruin and all of the lands like it, are a bit awkward sadly. I have tested these types of lands before with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and I am always left with a negative opinion of them. I originally ran a set alongside two copies of urborg to fight against Tron and Valakut.

One card you should consider for your black deck is Korlash, Heir to Blackblade. It is cheaper in monetary cost than Obliterator, fixes your mana since it can fetch non-basics, gets bigger with fetching and it is very hard to remove without exile effects. I ran both it and Obliterator at one point.

BotaNickill on Orzhov Scam

1 month ago

Dude, This looks mean! I would not want to play against that deck. I can't really see to much that needs improved, it looks like you have all your bases covered. I like using Sheoldred, the Apocalypse as a finisher but only because I don't have the Phyrexian Obliterators. I also have a black aggro style deck that I keep a Gary in the board for that devotion damage, and it has some similar aspects to your build. Some cards I use that you might consider are as follows:

Misery's Shadow , good early threat, gets rid of potential creatures returning from the grave, and pumpable in the late game.

Invoke Despair, absolutely devastating board removal when resolved, can be a finisher, and/or provide card draw.

Tenacious Underdog, great early threat and can be Blitzed over and over resulting in card draw if nothing else.

Knight of Dusk's Shadow can be an option for pesky lifegain decks. Also pumpable in the late game.

Agadeem's Awakening  ^Flip can be a good late game finisher or at the very least, another black source.

Bojuka Bog, Takenuma, Abandoned Mire, and Field of Ruin for a lil more depth to the land package.

Like I said tho, your build looks solid to me bud, just wanted to throw out some more options. Good luck to you!

wallisface on B/U Land Mill

1 month ago

This isn’t too far off competitive mill decks, and i think it should fare fairly well tbh. Here’s some thoughts for improvements though:

• 20 lands is pretty low, especially when you benefit from them so much with the crabs. I’d say 22 lands is generally a more optimal count for Mill.

• You probably want a playset of Field of Ruin as part of your land base. It can help get more crab triggers, and forces your opponent to search so lets you Archive Trap them.

• Devour in Shadow feels like a really odd choice as its going to hurt you an unreasonable amount (and the double-black casting cost is rough too). I’d suggest Infernal Grasp as a strict upgrade, though also Fatal Push should just serve you better in almost all situations anyway.

wallisface on taxes

1 month ago

Some thoughts:

• Urza's Saga has no place here - the only artifact it can grab is Aether Vial... and getting Vial down on turn 4 is pretty useless.

• You have 5 Leonin Arbiter in this deck (1 mainboard and 4 sideboard) - your deck can only have 4 of any card total. Personally i'd move the Arbiter into the mainboard and ditch Aven Mindcensor entirely, as that's a much slower/clumsier card.

• 19 lands is waaay too low for a Taxes deck. You want to be running at least 23 lands imo - especially with your quantity of 3-drops. In particular for your land choices, you'll find Blast Zone does nothing for you in almost all games, and really you should be running much higher quantities of Ghost Quarter and Field of Ruin so that you can make the most of Leonin Arbiter.

• If you're unable to run at least 3 Stoneforge Mystic for budget reasons, then i'd say its better to run none. The artifacts they're meant to search for are more likely to trip you up than help you with such a low number (Kaldra Compleat is never getting into play in this deck). Even if you manage to get 3-4 Stoneforge Mystic into the deck, I wouldn't suggest running more than a single copy of Kaldra Compleat or Maul of the Skyclaves - These cards are awesome when you can grab them with Mystic then cheat them in, but pretty terrible if you draw them naturally. You want these to be "toolbox" options for Mystic, and limit their quantity.

• Personally I'd ditch Cloudsteel Kirin... it's just too likely to be a liability and do-nothing card. Maybe its worth a sideboard slot at-best.

• There's no point running Spellskite when you could just be running the full playset of Giver of Runes

• really try to find room for that 4th Aether Vial!